Tag Archives: poetry by Dr. Erica Wright

Celebrating The Summer Solstice With Dogs.

For many years, I made a point
Of standing somewhere amazing
When the Summer Solstice Sun rose Making a bit of a song and dance
As the Sun came up
Bog eyed and bleary
As the first dawn rays hit
I’d play a bit of music
Sing an ancient song
Probably
Sumer Is Icumen In
Wicker Man stylee
But without all the human sacrifice
And definitely no Edward Woodwards.
And it was good.
But there are other ways
To show your gratitude
For the miracle of Sunlight
And they don’t all need
A lot of rigmarole
You can say Hooray for Summer
Anywhere at all
Any time of day
So long as you feel joy
In the warmth of the rays on your face
And to that end
Taking the dogs to find the Sun
At the far edge of everything
Where the land gives way to the sea
And the path of the Sun glistens
Turning rolling breakers into gold
Now that’s a fine place to
Celebrate the Summer Solstice
Even if the dogs don’t know or care That’s what we’re doing.
The simple happiness of dogs
Splashing about
In the glittering sunlit water
Enjoying every moment
Sings a new version
Of Sumer Is Icumen In
Sings it straight to your heart
From mine.

Do U Want To Stay Asleep?

Do you want to stay asleep

In your somnabulary life

While you are sleeping

You are turning into stone

Petrifying

 

But it only happens if you let it

 

And you let it

Long before

Your hair turned grey

When you started complaining

About the yoofs

In gravity-defying

Low slung jeans

Text speak

And all music released

Since U Can’t Touch This

 

You get so annoyed

When you recall

Your comedian son

With his

‘Stop! Hammer Time’

The Voice In My Head.

The voice in my head

From waking to sleeping

Flowing around me

Keeping me safely floating

Holds me above the dark below

 

The voice of you

Flowing through me

When I am calm

Holds me up

As I float in living water

That dissolved a mountain

 

I’ll hear your voice

In my head and in my heart

When all my sadness

Is washed away

In sweet sunlit water

Rippling in the wishing well.

 

Dr. Erica Wright 2014.

Plaything Of The Gods.

 

I am a plaything of the gods

And when they crush me

Into a little ball

Throw me

Hard into the wall

I will soften to rubber

Bouncing

Harmlessly

And when they

Heedlessly

Fling me

High, high into the air

I will open up my wings

And sweetly soar

Far across the cerulean blue.

 

Dr. Erica Wright 2014

Play It Loud.

Time softened the edges
Wore down the dangerous demeanour
Blunted the horns on top of my head
Little trace of that famous defiance
On the outside of this monster
That walks amongst you
But inside?
Still blazing
Still nothing that you are
Ear-aching i-pod buds
Thunder his howling
His raging luminescence
Fires up the beast inside
Has me swaying
Snake-hips twitching
Contorting my face
Silent-shrieking every line
On this morning tram
Surrounded by shoppers
And assorted poor meek souls
Trying to get to work
I am that thing
That crazy in the corner
Wild eyed and mouthing
‘No, I don’t have a gun’
‘No, I don’t have a gun.’

He Gave Me More Than He Knew.

 

Bright blue sky day far from home

Met an experimental performance poet

Who likes to say words that rhyme with ‘an’

And make tiny sculptures from the wire cages

That hold corks onto champagne bottles

Swapped our books by a sunlit forest waterfall

Something mutual and unsaid in that

More than the gift of words on paper

 

Wandered around a secret Elizabethan garden

Clipped formal hedges and geometric forms

Collected a handful of fallen rose petals

Crushed in my hand they smelled like heaven